ARK

ARK is an identifier scheme to provide persistent identifiers for resources, such as archived documents. It is similar in concept to DOI or URN. ARKs start with the ark:/ prefix, and are followed by a numeric Name Assigning Authority (NAA) and an opaque identifier of the particular item, with an optional suffix with a slash and an identifier of a particular section of the document, and/or a dot and an identifier of a particular variant or format. The whole thing can be prefixed with a URL that makes it resolvable as a web page (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ currently works), but this part can be stripped out if it no longer serves the needs of the user; only the part starting with ark is intended to be permanent.